To The Sea
by npurpura27
Summary: This is about several ships and what happened to them during World War Z.


**Norfolk, Virginia, USA**

 **[I meet Andrew McCoy at a small harbor. He is waiting for me next to a fishing boat polls in hand. "Try not to your stuff wet" he says when he see's my recorder. As we head out he begins to smoke and scratch and his beard]**

When the outbreak began I was a self made man. I had opened up a gun shop in the town of Warrenton Virginia¹. I had it all I thought but oh was I wrong. The first outbreak in Virginia happened in Virginia Beach. The Governor deployed the National Guard by that point New York Massachusetts Georgia Florida Illinois Texas New Mexico Arizona and California had deployed their National Guards. It worked for a while. Then Norfolk Roanoke Arlington Alexandria Lynchburg Hampton happened. By the time the new year rolled around I was on the road.

 **Where were you going?**

Naval Station Norfolk. I had heard on Radio Free Earth that the Z's couldn't get to you if you were on the water. It took me two months to make that journey. When I got their I saw it the _USS Theodore Roosevelt_. She was beautiful.

[ **We come to a stop. He lowers the anchor and we both cast out our lines place them in our holders. He offers me a beer which I accept]**

I entered the base. It had been abandoned during the Great Panic². When I got to the ships I was supposed to find people. Turns out they had been working on clearing the Roosevelt themselves. There was a group about 500 of them who tried to make it on their. Well it turns out one of them was infected. They didn't even make it out of the harbor. At least they weren't like the _Winston Churchill._ They stopped to pick someone up about one hundred forty eight mile that way.

[ **He points to the south]**

Turns they picked up an infested person who had been kicked of Bermuda. All of them out there no where to go. It must have been hell. It took us two weeks to clear the Roosevelt but we did it. It took us another month to gather up supplies. Every store every restaurant every school every home was searched. We had about four years worth of food and water. God only knows how many books and more decks of cards and board games than you could shake a stick at. **[He laughs]** I never would have thought that cafeteria chicken nuggets would become one of my favorite foods. Exactly two years after Yonkers we headed out. The man in charge of everything was Harold Klebold. Nice man about seventy two at the time he was the Captain of a cargo ship. Nice man. He died about three years ago. For about two month we saw no one. Then about thirty five miles southwest of Savannah we saw the _Rainbow Warrior._ There was about seventy people on their. Cutting up a killer whale. Kind of funny once you realize the _Rainbow Warrior_ was run by Greenpeace. They waved at us. About a week after that we saw the _CCGS Alfred Needler_ they told us that FM 100.2 was for people on the seas. Sure enough it was.

 **[My poll lurches forward it takes about twenty minutes to pull in a blue tuna]**

We heard from people all over the _Malcolm Miller Maersk Alabama_ the _Charles de Gaulle._ That made a difference. For about three months we had thought we were it. Turns out people were running for the sees. Twenty million that's how many came to the sea. Unfortunately only about ten million of them came back to shore.

 **What happened to them?**

Accidents mostly. The _CSL Neptune_ blew about forty eight miles from Ireland. That was around two hundred lives right their. The _Sevmorput_ and the _MS Bahamas Celebration_ collided about two hundred eighty eight miles east of Cuba. Turns out the _Sevmorput_ was nuclear powered. We were about sixty miles to the north and we heard the explosion. Then there were those who starved. The _Finnstar_ was home to one hundred seventy two people. Until they all starved to death. Then there are the ones that we don't know what happened. The _Santa Maria Manuela_ was found washed ashore near Cape Cod. There were twenty heads on the ship. Nothing else. I don't know what happened and I don't think a anyone else does. Hurricanes were another problem during the war their were three Category Five hurricanes³. One of them capsized the _USS Cole⁴_ was lost that way. Big hurricane passed right over waves fifty sixty feet high all of a sudden boom you're upside down.

 **Did you guys ever have any threats to your ship?**

Yeah plenty. About sixteen months in we almost ran aground in Brazil. We were twenty four miles from shore when we realized it. Luckily we still had enough power to turn around though I think the time we were most in trouble was with the pirates.

 **Pirates?**

Yeah we heard plenty of stories the _RV Mare Nigrum_ a former Romanian research vessels was hijacked near Portugal. The _SS Tyrrhenia_ the _Amadeus_ the _HMS Westminster_ all fell victims to pirates. It was always the same seize the ship kill everyone on board then once you ran out of supplies on the ship sink it. So anyways back to us. We were 27 miles of the coast of Angola when all of a sudden we see this little motor boat coming for us. We try to contact them they respond by shooting at us. Now the other ships that fell victim to pirates I don't know if they had any weapons but we did. One of our guys his name was Victor Manuel he was a Marine sniper from Cleveland Ohio. Six shots did guys in twenty second they were dead. They were about a hundred yards from the ship. Turns out one of them was infected so he gave it another shot right between its eyes.

 **[His line pulls and in about ten minutes he pulls in a swordfish]**

 **How did you hear about the end of the war?**

We were one thirty six miles from Charleston when we were contacted by the _Carnival Magic_ they said that they were heading for Boston. We said they were crazy but they said that America was free now. We tried other ships because we were certain they were pulling our legs. The _Yamal_ the _Seawise Giant_ the _MS Oasis of the Seas_ all of them said the same thing we began to head inland. It took us three days we got to Charleston one week after the end of the war. Their was a huge celebration when we got back turns out America only has four aircraft carriers now. _USS Theodore Roosevelt USS Saratoga USS Ronald Reagan_ and the _USS George Washington._ We were the last to be found. Today the Roosevelt is a museum ship about people who survived at sea during World War Z in Charleston Harbor. Kind of a weird ending for a ship that saw so much. I go down there once a year.

 **When?**

My birthday. And before you ask its June 3.

 **[I suddenly realize the date and then look to ahead of us. Their is a harbor with cargo ships cruise ships tugboats and in the middle of at it all a majestic aircraft carrier. The** _ **USS Theodore Roosevelt**_ **]**

1: Warrenton is located about 20 miles south of Washington DC. During the war it became a safe zone for people across Northern Virginia

2: Armed civilians had tried to enter the base blowing a hole in its defenses. A little over half of the men and women stationed there died

3: They were named Ian Wanda and Teddy they hit Miami Corpus Christi and New Orleans respectively since evacuation efforts were impossible to carry out it is estimated between 10,000 and 50,000 died in the storms

4: It is estimated that a third of America's navy was lost during World War Z


End file.
